I have been trying to retire my CDP for a while now and tried using a macbook pro as a player with various software/dac/connection/file type combinations, just to discover there is a lot to it I don't understand.

The best solution to date has been to rip with XLD to an SD card and plug that into an Oppo 105 to play the files, out of the oppo's dac it's getting very close to the CDP. So back to trying other dac's now at least.